What is Drama all about? Shakespeare and the Elizabethan theatre

What´s drama and what elements has it got? Have a look at the following presentation and learn some facts
about this genre.

Elements of drama de Melvin del Rosario

Elements of drama de Lina Ell

When talking about drama we have to make a reference to Shakespeare. We are going to learn some facts about his life and production and about the theatre of his own time. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died on April 23, 1616. This is the portrait believed to look most like him and it is on the First Folio of his comedies, and tragedies. The First Folio was published in 1623, some years later after his death. It is the only realiable text for about twenty of he plays. . The inscription on the stone beneath his monument reads: GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE, TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE: BLESTE BE Ye MAN Yt [that] SPARES THES STONES, AND CURST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES

Read the following presentation to complete your knowledge about Shakespeare and his time. 

William Shakespeare from spinheiro79

Elizabethan theatre was quite different from what we know nowadays in the 21st century.

Our modern theatres have many poweful eletric lights,the new technologies that make almost everything possible but in Shakespeare times, stages were lit by the afternoon sun and all the effects were created by the actors. (male not female). Women were not allowed on stage.

The audience was very close to the actors and the stage and the drama was quite rhetorical. The way they spoke was very different from what we can see today. This way of speaking was part of the drama itself. It helped the audience have the picture of the stage and enjoy the plot even more, so voice and action were key elements

Theatres were "open-air constructions"and the lower class people could stand on the floor in front of the stage. Wealthy people could buy gallery seats. Today our theatres are enclosed and we can´t sit on the stage or stand up in front of the stage.


Have a look at the following slideshare and see how the audience and actors were placed on the stage.

Shakepeare's Globe from njehitchen

Shakespeare invented and introduced many new words and expressions through his plays. Watch this video, do you recognize any of the words that became popular after him?

Watch this funny sketch with Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie about Shakespeare and Hamlet. This is a funny dialogue between the bard and his editor. Do you  want to know how one of the most famous soliloquies in the world was written!....